Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
Justin Pierre James TrudeauBlinken makes the first calls as Biden’s Secretary of State. Canadian lawmakers vote to label Proud Boys as a terrorist organization. Biden talks about NATO, climate change in the first presidential call with Frenchman Macron MORE on Friday revealed new restrictions on international travel to the country.
Trudeau told a news conference that Canada’s major airlines – Air Canada, West Jet, Sunwing and Air Transit – are suspending flights to all destinations in the Caribbean and Mexico from Sunday until April 30.
The airlines are “making deals with customers who are currently traveling in these regions to organize their return flights,” said Trudeau.
In addition, international flights are expected to land at one of the country’s four airports – Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto and Montreal – starting next week.
Trudeau said Canada will introduce mandatory airport PCR testing for travelers returning to the country “in the coming weeks”. Travelers will then be quarantined at an approved hotel for up to three days while waiting for their results on their own.
Travelers with a negative test will then be quarantined at home “under significantly increased surveillance and surveillance.”
Those with a positive test will have to be quarantined at designated government facilities to ensure that they do not have any of the most contagious new variants of COVID-19.
Trudeau also said the country will soon require non-essential travelers to submit a negative COVID-19 test before entering the land border with the U.S., and said Canada is working on additional testing requirements for land travel.
Canada currently requires air travelers must pass a negative test before embarking on international flights to Canada, and everyone entering the country will be quarantined or isolated for 14 days.
“With the challenges we currently face with COVID-19, both here and abroad, we all agree that now is not the time to fly,” said Trudeau.
There have been 770,427 coronavirus infections in Canada since the pandemic began, according to a Johns Hopkins University count, and more than 19,000 deaths.